The analog versus digital debate is one that gets many guitarists and bassists riled up. But perhaps, like a lot of things in life, it's not a case of picking one and excluding the other – but recognizing the beauty of both, and combining them in a way that makes sense for your project.
Steven Wilson's favorite cheap guitar plugin, which he used throughout his latest prog epic The Overview, adheres to this middle ground – as it makes "things sound like they're coming off a cassette tape. It’s a very lo-fi thing".
“It’s a $20 plugin made by Aberrant DSP called SketchCassette [SketchCassette II is currently $36],” he tells Guitarist. “You can choose the brand of tape, you can choose Ferric, Chrome, or Metal, how much wow and flutter, how much saturation, how much hiss, how old the tape is..."
Wilson explains he's a big fan as it adds the character and personality typically associated with analog gear. In fact, according to the plugin's official website, it's directly inspired by four-track cassette recorders and promises to unlock “the full range of cheap tape sounds”.
“Sometimes the problem with digital sounds is they just lack a little bit of character, and a little bit of what you would think of as an imperfection can make things have character,” Wilson continues.
“So very often, I just load up this cassette plug-in and add a little bit of flutter or warble or saturation, or just make it sound like it’s coming off a tape that’s been recorded over three or four times, and suddenly it gives the sound character.”
As the polymath aptly puts it, it's all about using “the best of both worlds, using the best of digital technology, but then also bringing in some of the characteristics of analog that we love so much”.
“It’s a gift for someone like me, who thinks of himself primarily as a producer, that there’s never been more ways to process, twist, and mutate sound. It’s just extraordinary, particularly when you bring together, as I have on this record, the two worlds of the vintage and the modern,” he concludes.
Wilson's The Overview features a four-minute-long guitar solo courtesy of Porcupine Tree touring guitarist Randy McStine, which Wilson describes as reinventing the “notion of the extended classic rock guitar solo.”
